


What Gibbs Remembers

by 1000PaperCranes



Category: Pirates of the Caribbean (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-22
Updated: 2014-02-22
Packaged: 2018-01-13 09:38:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1221424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1000PaperCranes/pseuds/1000PaperCranes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>And It Really Isn't Fair But He's Not Complaining.  No, he's really not, but it would be nice if the memories could wait until AFTER Jack finishes breaking down.  Or whatever he's doing.  It's hard to tell from here.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. -- Why Jack Hates Teague.  Or, Something Magical Might Be Happening. --

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimers: Blah Blah.
> 
> My first fic on AO3, and I know I've picked on a few people, but please go easy. Sort of. Well, whatever - I'll take any feedback I can get. If you notice any mistakes, they're mine, feel free to point them out. I don't have a beta, I'm not even sure how that works.
> 
> If someone could think up a GOOD summary, I'd be grateful and give you credit right there, probably with quotes.

Joshamee Gibbs smiled down upon the Captain as he entertained their sixteen hands with wild tales of his improbable adventures. Most people thought Jack a bit... well, touched, but Gibbs has known that lad for years now. On top of that he's known Teague a very long time indeed. Sometimes he despairs of one man or the other, both lost on a gallant - separate - search for a babe lost to the sea and losing each other for it. Mostly he feels a sad ache in the pit of his stomach when he watches them together. Here, watching Jack spin the crew, that ache swells again.

He can just see her, there with her brother winding a fantastic story neither of them could tell alone. Gone some twenty-eight years and Jack so alone without her. Gibbs remembers tales of the frantic child he once was. Scratching at his mother's arm, desperate to join the search for his twin. Alas, Jack Sparrow was a child and kept ashore. Perhaps, he would have been better off at Teague's knee. As the Captain's son he would have been sheltered from the battering experience he'd had as a cabin boy.

The ghost image is gone, but he can tell Jack's felt it too. His Captain will have black dreams tonight. Mayhap they sail over the young lass' grave. Their crew is good, but buccaneers become pirates and they need not know any weakness in their Captain. Lashing the wheel, Gibbs slips into the Captain's cabin to prepare.

\--

Long after young Captain's should be abed, Gibbs finds Jack cross-legged upon the wheel house. He's drenched in a shaft of moonlight, compass in hand. The un-broken thing points out straight along the bow, bearing to their present course. Jack is completely enthralled.

Gibbs stares at him for a time. There is soot all along the starboard side of Jack's neck and rigger's grease clings beneath his nails. It's time for new clothes, the coat and things the young man wears threaten to fall to pieces. The hat is a little more curled than last he looked, but in good shape. Gibbs doesn't know what Jack's connection to the crudely fashioned thing is, but it is deep and he's glad that it will last a while longer.

"We'll make port just after sundown on the morrow." Time has taught Mister Gibbs not to show how badly startled he is. Jack likes to do that; speak into the stillness uninvited. Although, it is his ship.

"I didn't know we we're that close t' land."

"It's a small island." And Jack is far away. _Are you there already?_ Gibbs thinks. None of that matters. Jack is past spent and Gibbs must make him rest. He places a hand gently upon his Captain's chest, pressing him down.

"Sleep there if ya like." He plucks up the compass and tucks it in against Jack's heart. "The moon will keep ya company, an' I'll be here." The next time he looks, Jack is asleep.

\--

Clouds thicken in the sky. It's not long before Jack falls from the wheel house, overtaken by nightmares. Staying the wheel, Gibbs waits for the dream to break. When it does his Captain is pliant and clingy, easily led, stumbling, to his berth. Rain breaks heavy upon the deck, a straight downpour. Gibbs sighs, heading back to his post. At least the rain is warm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's see. You read: review.
> 
> I will do my very best not to make any Mary Sues, but if you'd like MORE description on a character I can definitely do that.
> 
> And acknowledging that I don't read the notes either; thank you, and have a nice day.


	2. --  How It Happened, Because It Did.  Also, When Gibbs Met Teague. --

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter longer. They will vary. Me smart Hulk talk.

Grace Sparrow had been naught but three, when in the midst of a battle between the Imperial schooner that had been Gibbs first journey and the bootleg ship captained by the infamous pirate Teague, the little girl had been jostled from her father's grip and tipped into the roiling sea. Another child screamed in distress, shaking him from the horrified stupor induced by the sight. Gibbs dove into the water, searching franticly below the surface for the bright yellow dress and delicate little form. He forced himself downward, again and again, to no avail. The little girl was lost to the ocean, drowned before she was old enough even for shoes.

When he broke the surface for the final time, arms empty and heart low, the battle had stopped. Gibbs was a betting man, and he'd wager - particularly given the tableau aboard the Abigail Eilley - that it had halted for himself. Captain Teague stood firm, brandishing a fat scimitar beneath Captain White's chin. A lad, of the same age and make, was pressed firmly to the pirate's hip with one hand. The Sparrows, father and son, watched Gibbs in the water, faces grim and desperate by turn. He felt sick for their devastation, swallowing a small mouthful of ocean to calm his twisting stomach.

Teague nearly beheaded White when the Navy Captain spoke, cutting a thin line across the old man's throat. "We forget sometimes, in our duty and in our merriment, that Pirates are also People. Sons and fathers and each a members of oft distant families. It is never our intent to break homes. This is yours and today it is shattered. I can offer you no greater condolence than the life of the man responsible and our immediate retreat." His Captain did not mention Gibbs, the salt would be thick in their wounds already and nothing could eclipse that hurt, even for a pirate.

White stepped back, clear of Teague's blade, and motioned for the Blues to return to Her Majesty's Swift Mercy. For his part in the bargain, Captain Teague flung his blade overboard, which seemed to stay the pirate crew. They all stood fast and strong, while the sailors returned from whence they came. And if when they were gone, the wretched man clutched up his young son, no one ever said a word. Later, back aboard the Mercy, when Gibbs looked out to see the inconsolable lad passed from black-heart to black-heart and again into his father's arms, if he cried tears not made by the wind, no one spoke on that either.

With all her living men safely back aboard the Swift Mercy, Captain White again addressed the masses. "Let them go, lads. This small tragedy is a heavy enough punishment." Obedient, the sailors lowered their weapons and released their adversaries. The heavy-hearted scalawags departed without a word. White's hand was warm and heavy on Gibbs shoulder after they had gone. "It's alright to cry for them, son." The gentle giant wiped his face with a soft kerchief. "Whatever they've done, the loss of a child is an unfair price." He smiled sadly then, and Gibbs would always wonder, later, if he wasn't a bit wistful. "They are human, and they loved her."

Even now, so many years the later, Gibbs thinks fondly of Ingraham White and the Swift Mercy. White had always captained good crews of brave and selfless men. He had stayed with them, like many men, until White's final voyage. The Swift Mercy was safe from privateer interference for all that time, often foraying into hostile waters; retrieving prisoners for ransom or exchanging supplies for information. She was sunk out from under them in a vicious battle with a French frigate.

\--

He would never forget that night. The way the scurvy winkles had limped away when a clipper flying the jolly roger opened fire with its three chase guns. The crew of the Flying Harlot had scooped them from the waves and plied them with stale water and blackstrap-smoked venison. Their Captain, a merry fellow called Boone, had flown up Dutch colors as they were of little interest in the current squabble, before wrapping the pirate flag around White's shoulders, ostensibly for warmth. Captain White had happily dawdled about in the great heap of black cloth, patting dry his soaking men until the sun had risen.

It had all been happy and memorable, and the whole thing reminded Gibbs of Jack; with his sense of fair play and comradeship, and also his good morals, shrouded though they might be. If he had to pick one thing that was best, it was the thing that eventually led him to be a buccaneer himself. One of the crotchetier bandits had complained - about Blue-Coats and sharing rations and softness - to Boone within Gibbs hearing. He still remember each word in Captain Boone's response. " _I_ don't know what the Code says of it, boy, but will _ye_ be the one t' lay waist t' the crew o' the Swift Mercy while Ingrum White still stands 'er Captain? Rations an' softness, say you; save the lass, says I. These are the men what stopped a battle t' search fer Teague's baby an' they're safe on my ship!" Boone was hissing in that dangerous way of any good Captain - _'sept Jack o'course, but he made up fer it with his special brand o' crazy_. He called the man an 'oozing boil on the buttock of a sow' and sent him away.

Either word spread like fire, or that one was the only man who needed telling, because the Pirates were chipper company for the three days until landfall off the Colonies. When they rowed ashore, White bustled him along to a tavern. Inside, Boone bought them a round of hot, fermented cider. The drink was plentiful and the turkey pie good; Gibbs relaxed in the warmth by the fireside.

A dark haired man joined them suddenly. He was filthy and stunk of the bilge. Boone greeted him with a jolly shout and a great clasping of shoulders and hands. He waived at the barmaid.

"A round fer my friend! A round fer my friend! An' bring the battered trout!" The four men watched the woman bustle about intently. They watched her bring the drink and return to the bar. They watched her make the food and bring that too. Then they watched her leave, into the pantry, and away from prying eyes. "You'll never guess, who I found floatin' in the drink."

The newcomer looked up from his stingingly hot meal. Something about him was familiar to Gibbs, but his sable eyes were locked on Captain White, and a shark grin was spreading beneath his whiskers. "Don't I know you?" White leaned on his elbows on the table for near on a full minute. He filched piece of fish with a grin.

Crossing his booted feet upon the table, he sat back in his chair to chew. "How's your boy?"

The man narrowed his eyes. He talked around his meal quietly. "Mad with grief, mostly. I left him ashore this time. He tore at his mum when I left and screamed s' loud they could hear him clean out t' the ship."

 

"He'll never forgive you."

"No. He won't."

 

 --

They were silent for a long time. The man finished his meal; sweeping up a surprise loot of row on his finger, sucking the little beads off, and crunching them between his teeth contemplatively. The two Captains traded looks and coins for several minutes.

"Teague," Boone began. And that's why Gibbs couldn't place him, he been too far away to ever really see Sparrow. "How are _you_?" He said it with such gentle kindness, that Gibbs knew he meant the little girl. Sunshine yellow and nighttime curls flashed in his vision.

"Little better than my son. An' he's wild without her." The man clutched his tankard, but it had gone cool. White took it up and signaled for another.

Captain White made a vague gesture with the emptied flagon. "This is the man that did it." Gibbs jerked in his chair, shock and terror catching his heart. But the moments ticked over and all Captain Sparrow did was stare him down. Gibbs mustered himself and returned with a calm level look.

"Thank you."

Even in the tense silence the words were difficult to hear, as though some sprite had stolen Teague's voice, or tied his tongue with twine. That was the last thing he said that night. He'd listed against the table, he'd traded his stein away to them each time when the heat left it, and he'd watched Gibbs thoughtfully. They were merry despite him; and Gibbs thinks, now, that perhaps Teague was merry too, in his grief-stricken way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Naming Jack's sister was HARD. I picked Grace because: it was common at the time, a nice thing to say about a girl, single syllable, and you can add -ie just like Jack to Jackie (thanks Keith Richards).
> 
> According to IMDb it is Captain Teague Sparrow, so that's what I'm going with, especially when you have Edward Teach running around. But I'm pretty sure they get their facts from the fact people, so...


End file.
